Year 5 Spring Term 1

In English, we will be beginning our work using the book ‘There’s a Girl in the Boy’s Bathroom,’ by Louis Sachar.

This book has as its main character Bradley, a ‘bad’ boy who is always in trouble. We get right into Bradley’s heart and mind in this narrative, offering children ways to discuss issues of friendship, bullying, and the links between self-esteem, behaviour and learning through the events in the story. The book supports the children’s learning when looking at the plot of the story, character development and their emotional response to strong themes in narrative fiction.

In Maths, Year 5 will be continuing to develop their understanding of formal written methods when multiplying and dividing. The children will be taught how to multiply numbers up to 4 digits by 1- digit and 2-digit numbers before learning how to divide a number up to 4 digits by a 1-digit number; dividing with remainders. The children will then apply this knowledge to solve multiplication and division problems.

We will then begin our 3rd Fraction unit. Building on our previous learning, children will be taught how to multiply unit fractions by an integer, multiply non-unit fractions by an integer, multiply mixed numbers by integers, find a fraction of an amount, find the whole and use fractions as operators.

In Science, the children will be investigating Materials, children will compare and group together everyday materials on the basis of their properties, including their hardness, solubility, transparency, response to magnets and electrical and thermal conductivity.

• give reasons, based on evidence from comparative and fair tests, for the particular use of everyday materials, including metals, wood and plastic.
• Working scientifically, classify materials in different ways explaining their classification criteria.
• plan, carry out and interpret an investigation in trying to answer a question about the most suitable material for a given function.

In RE, Year 5 will be completing the topic ‘Whose World is it?’ where children will be examining and commenting upon the Creation stories from different cultures and religions from around the World. They will be considering issues related to the environment and how it can be cared for and preserved for future generations.

In History, we will be beginning our study of Ancient Egypt. Pupils will travel back 5000 years to the dusty realms of Ancient Egypt. Cruising along the Nile to enter a world of mysteries and curses, mummies and kings. Unravel the secrets of the ancient tombs, using historical sources and artefacts. They will research to find out about powerful pharaohs and gods. Pupils will learn about how to prepare the body of Pharaoh ready for its journey to the afterlife.

In French, we will continue to develop the children’s reading, listening, speaking and writing skills. We will begin a unit of work on Shopping, where children will review their knowledge on numbers and will learn to ask for and buy food items. We will be using Kapow French for our learning in class this year although all children are able to practise their learning at home using the online resource Linguascope.

In Computing, Year 5 will completing the programming unit ‘Micro:bits’. The children will first be given time to tinker with the BBC Micro:bit. They will then be taught how to program an animation, to recognise coding structures, create a program for a pedometer and a scoreboard.

In Music, we will begin the term by completing a composition notation unit with the theme of Ancient Egypt. We will be learning to identify the pitch and rhythm of written notes and experiment with notating our own compositions.

In Art, learning will be linked to the Ancient Egyptians. The children will be extending their knowledge of Form, using clay to make and decorate a Canopic jar.

In PSHE, we will be studying the unit ‘Healthy Me’. Over this unit of work, children will develop their understanding of knowing the health risks of smoking and will be able to explain how tobacco affects the lungs, liver and heart; know some of the risks of misusing alcohol, including anti-social behaviour; will learn and practice basic emergency first aid procedures (including the recovery position) and know how to get help in emergency situations; understand how the media, social media and celebrity culture promotes certain body types; will be able to describe the different roles food can play in people’s lives and can explain how people can develop eating problems (disorders) relating to body image pressures; will know what makes a healthy lifestyle including healthy eating and the choices to be healthy and happy.

In P.E, the children will be attending weekly swimming lessons. The skills we will be working towards are the following:

• swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres
• use a range of strokes effectively [for example, front crawl, backstroke and breaststroke]
• perform safe self-rescue techniques such as, different floating techniques, treading water etc.

In their second PE lesson, the children will be learning how physical activity can be adapted. They will take part in a variety of sports such as bowls, boccia and table tennis. They will use communication, cooperation and their imaginations to develop their own activities and suggest ideas on how sports could be adapted. The children will also be learning to put actions to music when creating dance routines. They will be working in pairs and groups to use their imagination to choreograph movements that flow and keep the rhythm of the music. The children will need to think about how directions of movements, levels, shapes and pathways can improve their ideas.